The calendar has turned to February. The stretch run in for Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference basketball season has arrived.
With seven regular-season RMAC games to play, No. 17 Fort Lewis College has a one-game lead against Westminster for first place. The weekend provides another opportunity for the Skyhawks to get two games closer to a championship, but it also provides the rest of the teams a chance to gain ground.
This week, it is New Mexico Highlands and Colorado State University-Pueblo who will try to unseat the Skyhawks.
“At this point of the season, if you don’t play well you’re going to be in trouble,” said FLC head coach Bob Pietrack. “This is why you want to play college basketball. The games in February and March, they are critical to all the schools.”
FLC (17-3, 13-2 RMAC) has only three home games left on the schedule and will have only one, the regular-season finale Feb. 24 against Westminster, when this weekend is through. The Skyhawks are riding a four-game winning streak and are 11-0 at Whalen Gymnasium this season. In his third year leading the FLC program, Pietrack has gone 43-1 at home.
“We’re 0-0 this week,” Pietrack said.
Add two more wins, and that trophy for winning the conference and the right to host the RMAC Shootout will be a little closer. But FLC will have to slow down two teams capable of beating any team in the conference who are chasing conference tournament berths of their own. Only the top-eight teams in the conference make the tournament. Right now, Highlands is seventh and CSU-Pueblo is ninth, with Black Hills State sandwiched in between.
FLC already owns wins against both of this weekend’s foes, with a 85-69 win at CSU-Pueblo (10-11, 7-8 RMAC) and a 91-79 victory at New Mexico Highlands (13-8, 8-7 RMAC) during the opening weekend of conference play.
Both games were close in the second half before FLC pulled away.
Highlands, which has lost four of its last six games, is a deep team with five players averaging double-digit scoring, led by Jacob Holland’s 15.1 points per game. FLC held Holland to 11 points earlier this year, while Jordan Jones had the best night for the Cowboys with 17 points and five rebounds.
“This is definitely the best Highlands team in years,” Pietrack said. “They’ve got some very good post players, explosive wings and can shoot it. They have a good style of play and are well-coached, and there’s a reason they’ve already won 13 games.”
Against Highlands earlier this year, FLC sophomore forward Riley Farris had a career night. He made all 12 shots he attempted from the field and scored 31 points. His 12-of-12 shooting performance set an FLC record. Senior guard Daniel Hernandez also torched the Cowboys for 23 points.
“Hernandez and Farris had spectacular games down there,” Pietrack said. “I’m not sure if it is a matchup thing or the way the game flow went, but we will need them and everybody this weekend.”
Playing tight defense Saturday against CSU-Pueblo will be key against a ThunderWolves team that went to Golden and beat Colorado Mines 83-79 on Jan. 20. The ThunderWolves made 15 shots from 3-point territory in the game, and the 3 is the key for the team that is in the top 30 in all of Division II in made 3-pointers.
“Pueblo is the scariest shooting team in our league,” Pietrack said. “They’re capable of making 20 3s. They are a senior-laden team, and, when the calendar flips to February, the seniors crank it up.”
FLC did a good job defending the 3-point line in Pueblo earlier this year and held the ThunderWolves to 26 percent shooting from 3 and 40.4 percent from the field for the game.
Will Newman has led the ThunderWolves with 16.8 points per game this season. Jason Anderson is right behind him at 16.3 points per game as the team’s top weapons. Senior forward Josh Smith had a solid game against FLC earlier this season with 16 points, and Mark Williams came off the bench to score 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He has averaged only 7.5 points per game this season.
FLC boasts the ninth-best shooting team in the nation with a field-goal percentage of 50.4 percent. Only 13 teams in Division II are shooting better than 50 percent from the field. FLC also ranks 20th in the nation in scoring offense at 87.4 points per game and is No. 23 in scoring margin by outscoring opponents by an average of 12.2 points per game.
FLC still boasts five players averaging double-digit scoring, led by Rasmus Bach’s 15.1 per game. Marquel Beasley is second at 14 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Hernandez and DJ Miles both average more than 12 points per game, and senior center Brandon Wilson has averaged 10.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and ranks third on the team with 43 assists.
“We’ve got two really big games against two teams in the playoff hunt,” Pietrack said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
